L.A. HISTORY BUFFS COME OUT SWINGING : CATHEDRAL IS JUST LATEST CAUSE FOR BATTLE.

Byline: Anne Burke and Rick Orlov Daily News Staff Writers

Preservationists from the Los Angeles Conservancy have done battle over the years to keep the wrecking ball from burger joints, department stores, theaters, historic homes and the public library.

In recent weeks, the private nonprofit organization has intervened to stop demolition of St. Vibiana's Cathedral, a downtown Los Angeles landmark.

In doing so, it has chosen to take on a formidable opponent: Cardinal Roger Mahony, leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, who wants to demolish the damaged cathedral and replace it with a $45 million cathedral complex.

Located at Second and Main streets near Skid Row, the 120-year-old St. Vibiana's Cathedral was severely damaged in the Northridge Earthquake.

Preservationists from the 5,000-member conservancy want the old structure seismically retrofitted and incorporated - at least partly - into the new cathedral, and they have gone to court to block demolition.

``This is one of the oldest buildings left in existence in Los Angeles. Just because it's small, as cathedrals go, doesn't diminish its significance,'' said conservancy board member Peter Moruzzi of Silver Lake.

Mahony has said he may move the new cathedral out of the downtown area unless St. Vibiana's can be torn down and rebuilt.

The archdiocese, like other organizations that have locked horns with the conservancy, considers the group's members to be obstructionist zealots.

``We've dialogued with them for 19 months now and informed them every time we were going to do something,'' said the Rev. Gregory Coiro, spokesman for the archdiocese.

``What we see now is what happens when you're dealing with zealots,'' Coiro said. ``They don't recognize our First Amendment rights to freedom of religion.''

Coiro said Mahony is upset that the conservancy went to court to halt demolition that the church says was ordered by the city because of the hazard from the earthquake-damaged bell tower.

Mayor Richard Riordan and Councilwoman Rita Walters also have waded into the controversy.

Riordan said last week he believes that ``a few conservationists threaten to trample the incredible effort of the archdiocese'' to build a new cathedral.

Walters said she fears that the position of the conservancy threatens the entire project.

``If they succeed, this will be a severe loss to downtown and will deprive

the city of a vision and direction for the next millennium.''

While the dispute over St. Vibiana's is receiving a great deal of attention, it is not the first time the conservancy has fought a high-profile battle.

It has filed suits in the past to block the demolition of the Los Angeles Philharmonic building - the conservancy lost that fight - and, in a case that is still pending, to preserve the Ambassador Hotel.

In addition, it has intervened in efforts to modernize the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, blocking original efforts to put in luxury suites as requested by Al Davis and the Raiders and even fighting improvements to the press box.

But Don Webb, who oversaw the retrofit of the Coliseum after the Northridge Earthquake, said the group helped contractors deal with the federal historic landmark laws.

``They played a very active role . . . in determining the design decisions and the scope of work in restoring the Coliseum from a historically sensitive perspective,'' Webb said. ``They were helpful in the sense of navigating us through the process, and we were always able to amicably work out differences - so much so, that we completed this quickly, under very demanding circumstances, and later received national . . . awards.''

These are only the latest conservation issues undertaken by the group.

In the early 1980s, the conservancy spared the Wiltern Theatre from the wrecking ball. The Wilshire Boulevard space is now gloriously restored.

The group also helped save the art deco Bullock's store on Wilshire Boulevard.

The Bob's Big Boy in Burbank - the chain's oldest remaining restaurant and a classic example of 1940s architecture - was saved after a lengthy fight.

In the San Fernando Valley, the conservancy was among groups that sought federal funds to preserve historic, quake-damaged homes, some dating to the early 1900s.

The conservancy is one of six members of the Historic Preservation Partners for Earthquake Response that collectively won grants of about $300,000 for the Valley, said Liz Westerfield, the partnership group's program manager.

Founded in 1978, the conservancy grew out of a successful grass-roots effort to preserve Los Angeles' historic downtown library.

``Up to that point, there was really no organization in Los Angeles that spoke with a unified and responsible voice for preservation and revitalization of the historic (resources),'' said Margaret Bach of Santa Monica, the conservancy's founding president.

A shoestring operation in its early days, the conservancy survived on donations and the hard work of about a dozen volunteers, Bach recalled.

Today, the conservancy has an annual budget of about $600,000 and a staff of seven, according to the executive director, Linda Dishman. Members pay annual dues of at least $35, with some contributing $1,000 each, she said.

One of the group's focuses is on the preservation of modern architecture.

``Los Angeles was a magnet for a lot of architects from all over the world, particularly those interested in experimenting with new ideas. From the turn of the century, they started coming here and building some of the most amazing homes and commercial structures,'' Moruzzi said.

Their work is ``very young by traditional standards, but it's definitely unique to Los Angeles, and it's disappearing very quickly,'' he added.

Many of those structures lost forever to history include the space-agey Ship's coffee shop in Westwood, the prototypical '50s Tiny Naylor's drive-ins, and the Googie's chain, Moruzzi said.

In the San Fernando Valley, preservation buffs like Moruzzi still lament the loss of two historic restaurants in the Coffee Dan's chain.

The conservancy has other irons in the fire, along with St. Vibiana's and the Ambassador Hotel. The group is trying to preserve a circa-1958 pharmaceutical factory in Pasadena, designed by prominent architect Edward Durell Stone, Moruzzi said.

The conservancy also sponsors educational programs. The group's film series, now in its 10th year, brings thousands of people to downtown's underused theater district, home of the country's largest collection of historic theaters, Dishman said.

Many of the theaters house second-run and Spanish-language movie houses.

``A lot of people who go to the series have never been downtown. (The series) is a good vehicle to let people know we have all these historic resources,'' Dishman said.